FIG. 1 shows a prior art small form-factor pluggable (SFP) compact optical transceiver 10 that is used for optical communications. The SFP transceiver 10 can be used for telecommunications and data communications applications. The first end 12 the SFP transceiver 10 has two openings 16 and 18 for receiving optical ends 26 and 28 of a duplex LC fiber optic connector 30 connected to a fiber optic networking cable 34. Opening 16 includes a receiver of optical signals and the other opening 18 includes a transmitter of optical signals.
Termination covers 36 and 38 are shown in FIG. 1. Termination covers 36 and 38 are used to cover respective termination points 56 and 58 of respective optical ends 26 and 28 of duplex LC fiber optic connector 30.
A prior art dust cover 40 can be placed in openings 16 and 18 of SFP transceiver 10 when optical ends 26 and 28 of duplex LC fiber optic connector 30 are not placed in openings 16 and 18. Prior art dust cover 40 helps to keep dust and debris from entering openings 16 and 18.
FIG. 2 shows SFP transceiver 10 in an inverted position. The back end 42 of transceiver 10 is shown. Connector 40 provides an electrical connection between transceiver 10 and a communications switch or router.
FIG. 3 shows transceiver 10 inserted into SFP cage 46 of gigabit switch 50, which is a port of the gigabit switch 50. Optical ends 26 and 28 of duplex LC fiber optic connector 30 are inserted into openings 16 and 18 of transceiver 10. An electrical connector at the internal end of SFP cage 46 allows connector 40 of transceiver 10 to electrically couple with an internal motherboard (not shown) of switch 50. FIG. 3 also shows another SFP transceiver 12 inserted into SFP cage 48 of switch 50, which is another port of switch 50.
One disadvantage of prior art cable and switch systems is the difficulty in handling unconnected fiber optic cables. Numerous unconnected fiber optic cables can be hard to keep track of.
Sometimes fiber optic connector ends of cables are temporarily placed or parked in unused SFP cages or ports, such as SFP cage 62 of FIG. 3 that does not contain a transceiver. Nevertheless, such fiber optic connector ends only loosely reside in such unused SFP cages, given that the SFP cages typically are much larger than the fiber optic connector ends. This means that the fiber optic connector ends can be easily dislodged from the unused SFP cages.